Ethics of Eating

Once a German crew was caught by Cannibalistic Amazon Forest Dwellers. Only one among the whole crew knew the language of the tribe. So he tried to explain that they were just there for trekking. But the tribesmen ignored his plea and started to kill and eat the crew members one by one. As he spoke their language, his life was spared. 

On the new moon celebration, the tribal chief had a meeting with the German in his court. The chief shared his adventurous anaconda hunts. The German, who was an Army General of Nazi Germany, smiled and recollected his role in Hitler’s army. He told that the Army under his command killed nearly 20,000 “enemies”.

Taken aback, the tribal chief asked him “How you managed to eat such a large amount of  people?”. The German replied “We have something called civilization, and we won’t eat human beings.” The chief, with a even more surprised voice told, “If killing such a vast number of people without the need to eat is called civilization, then our tribe never need it!” The German hung his head in disgrace as he realized what he had done for the first time in his life.

Based upon a story I read somewhere....

Tamil Keyboard for Android

<<<Read this article in Tamil >>> 
<<<இந்தக் கட்டுரையைத் தமிழில் படிக்க>>

Now a days, everybody is having one or more Android device(s). Also there are lot of content in Tamil around the Internet. But the main hurdle we have is, how to search for Tamil content if we can't search in Tamil? Google, Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo all index Tamil content. But how can we search it? Typing in English? At least in PC, we can use online Tamil transliteration sites or software for typing in Tamil. But in mobile or tablet?

Here comes a decent Android app to your rescue. AnySoftKeyboard with Tamil layout extension.

Please follow the below steps to get this awesome app in your mobile:

1. Check any Tamil website and ensure that you have proper Tamil font support. Most popular brands come with excellent Indic fonts support. But some mobiles have broken support (render Tamil letters incorrectly) or lack Tamil fonts (display them as boxes). To make sure, open this page in your mobile/tablet browser and check the below line.

தமிழ் எங்கள் மூச்சு

If the above line is rendered properly, you can proceed to next step without any issue. [Note: If the text is NOT rendered correctly, you need Tamil font support to proceed. This may need rooting your device. So it is up to you to research and do it.]

2. Download AnySoftKeyboard from this link (Google Play Store).

3. Download and install Tamil for AnySoftKeyboard from this link (Google Play Store).

4. After AnySoftKeyboard and Tamil layout for it, have been downloaded and installed, go to your phone's settings, and select "Language & keyboard"

5. In the next screen, enable "Any Soft Keyboard".

6. A dialog box will open and will warn you about possible key-logging attacks which can be done by this keyboard application. Note: This is a generic message, and will be shown when you enable any keyboard application.

7. Long press on one of the text input field (select input method from notification area in Android 4+). A dialog will pop-up. Choose AnySoftKeyboard

8. I suggest you to turn off auto suggestion in "AnySoftKeyboard settings" in settings menu or by long-pressing "enter" button. This improves Tamil typing speed.

9. Long press characters to get similar characters as a pop-up. For example, ஆ can be typed by long pressing அ. Similarly, தீ can be typed by first typing த and then long pressing இ and choosing appropriate compound letter.

Salient features:

1. Fully free and open source software. No ads, and the source is available at Github. Click here for source.

2. Tamil layout matches English QWERTY layout. So it is easy to remeber and type.

3. One touch toggle between Tamil and English layouts. So you can type Tanglish easily.

4. Works without internet connection. As said, no ads, no payment required.

5. Small size and pretty fast.

6. Main app is used by more than million users and Tamil layout is used by more than 100,000 users. Both apps are rated with more than 4 stars.

So why are you waiting! Install the app now and chat with your buddies in your mother tongue! Update your status in Tamil! Search the internet for Tamil words/phrases! Explore the world in your own language!

Please leave comments if you have any doubts in using this app. If you like this app, please give it a good rating and review at Play Store. Thanks for reading
:-)

Book Review: 20000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Get your self ready to dive in to the ocean with Captain Nemo and his electrical submarine Nautilus. It is a wonderful science fiction novel by French author Jules Verne. The story was narrated to me by my dad when I was a child. Later I got a paperback of the book. It was awesome and at one point, I was saying everyone that one day I will become a marine engineer [that didn't happen ;-) ].

The book opens with widespread fear about a sea monster. Professor Aronnax and his companions take up the task to solve the mystery. But they are captured by the crew of an electrical submarine (which was mistaken for a monster) headed by captain Nemo. The story is packed with adventures under the sea. From south pole to Mannar gulf near Tamil Nadu, the travel covers wide variety of locations and events.

Electric submarine may sound so common and you may wonder why this is called a science fiction. But this book was released even before electric bulbs became common. Written in 1870, the book has references to lot of technical advances which were still under research or not yet invented back then.

 There are hints in the book that point that Captain Nemo may be an Indian. But his crew consists of men from many other nationalities, who all are against oppressive regimes all over the world. In this aspect, Jules Verne touches the colonial oppression and imperialistic occupation prevalent those days.

In today's context, we can match this to corporates conquering our life and trying to control every aspect of our life. So, it is still relevant and you will surely love it.

The book is in public domain as the copyright has expired. So usually it is available for lesser price. You can also read it in Wikisource website for free, but I prefer printed books so that I can collect them after reading. Moreover, you can read them laying down, sitting at dining table or during travel without much strain.

February 23rd 2014 - Pulse Polio Immunisation Campaign

India is proudly Polio free for three years now. But the battle has just begun. With neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan still registering Polio cases, it is our duty to fight against Polio as Indian citizens. So, if you or anyone in your circle have a child below 5 years, please take them to nearest Polio vaccination centre set-up by government.

Vaccination @ a railway station

Points to note:

When? February 23rd, 2014. It is a Sunday, and no silly excuses!

Where? Nearby railway stations, bus stands, airports, primary health centers, Government hospitals, Government Schools and other places like places of worship, libraries, shopping malls. Check your local administrative office for more information.

Who? Children below age 5.

How? Take them to the center. Tell the medical staff/doctor there about your baby's current health, age, previous vaccination date and other details you feel important in this regards. They will decide whether to give vaccine or not (in some rare cases, it may be advised against giving, such as a very high fever or taking any other medication) The vaccine is offered free of cost by Indian government. So make use of it.

Trivia:

Jonas Salk - Inventor of Polio Vaccine

When Jonas Salk (inventor of Polio vaccine) was asked in a televised interview who owned the patent to the vaccine, Salk replied: "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"

Jallikattu

Jallikattu:

First, let me make it clear that I don't support or oppose Jallikattu. My opinion on it is neutral. I don't watch it and I don't participate in it. But still, I have some opinions on the same because it is singled out and criticized for no good reasons.

"Jallikattu", for those who are not familiar, is a traditional Tamilian sport where bulls are fought by young men. This is much similar to the bull fights of Spain (only foreign imports are "great" for our people). It is conducted in days following to Pongal celebrations (harvest festival of Tamils). These type of tradtions exists in almost all cultures.

But in recent years, there are voices against Jallikattu, and I also support some of the opposing views. For example, drugging the bull to increase it ferociousness, conducting the competition without safety measures and thus resulting in injury of audience. But none of these reasons can be used to stop the event itself. We can just regulate the practice. A government representative can inspect the bulls and other safety measures taken and give approval for Jallikattu.

But the other reasons these people give are silly and sometimes outrageous. Below are some of the claims and my refutation to the same.

1. Bulls are hurt in the sport
My Response: How many other animals are injured and killed everyday for various reasons? As far as I know, many other animals are treated worse. Example from lovebirds in your backyard to elephants in temples. These bulls are cared and maintained in good conditions and they live a better life compared to other bulls. I have personally seen the special treatment they receive.

2. Bull is an endangered species
My Response: This is also a lie. And even if there is a grain of truth, then stopping Jallikattu will result in extinction of bulls. As tractors had replaced the plowing and cars had replaced bullock carts, the need for bulls are just to impregnate cows. Only some bulls used in Jallikattu and bullock cart races are the only remaining bulls apart from those farm bulls. How can stopping Jallikattu increase the number of bulls?

3. Bull is a wild animal
My Response: Bull is a domestic animal. Even wild animals like elephants, birds like peacock are kept in temples. None is opposing those things. But when it comes to bulls, they claim that bulls are wild animals. Does that mean we all are drinking milk from forest?

4. Jallikattu results in death/injuries
My Response: So is the F1, bike races, martial arts etc also results in deaths and injuries. Indian government spent billions in F1 race but deny Tamils to conduct Jallikattu. Why? Where those protests against F1 and other races? I don't support people dying. But we have to ban all such sports. We should not single out Tamils and common people while allowing rich corporate sports like F1.

5. It is very old sport, time to move ahead
My Response: I don't have any problem in this view. But this not only applies to this sport. Some games like running race and swimming are even older. Don't we have them in Olympics now?

So in my view, there is no need to ban Jallikattu. Regulating the sport is sufficient. But the calls to ban Jallikattu seems to be plain discrimination towards Tamils.

Lenovo S210T - Brightness Control Keys Under Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

!!!Update!!! Upgrading to 14.04 LTS needs a small change to make the brightness control work perfectly. Read the update section below.

With the default Ubuntu 12.04 installation brightness control keys won't work. To fix this follow the steps below:

1. Open terminal (press Win key and type "terminal" and choose terminal)

2. Type the below code (you may be prompted to enter password)

gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub

3. In the grub file, edit the following line

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

to

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_backlight=vendor"

4. Make sure you have not done any other change by mistake as it will mess up your booting. Save and close the file.

5. Then execute below command

sudo update-grub

6. Restart your PC

Brightness Control working after ACPI change in GRUB command line

For me this fix works well. My model is the one with CDC processor, 2GB RAM,  500GB HDD. The brightness keys work most of the times, but in some sporadic cases, it won't. It happens very rarely (may be once in 20 boots). There may be some problem with drivers or something. I will update if I find out why.(see update) For Unity 3D/Unity 2D, the keyboard brightness control works flawlessly. For LXDE, the keys won't work. But alternatively you can use the xbacklight command. Follow the below steps after doing above changes.

1. To install xbacklight

sudo apt-get install xbacklight

2. To decrease brightness

xbacklight -dec 5

3. and to increase brightness

xbacklight -inc 7

The numbers can be anything But be extra careful as it may fully reduce brightness if you give large numbers.

Update: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (April 26th 2014)

I recently updated my laptop with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, after which the brightness control stopped working permanently. But it just needed a small change to work. Here it is.

1. Edit black list file for modprobe

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

2. Add the following lines to it

# Added to make brightness control work
blacklist ideapad_laptop

3. Reboot

That's it! Now brightness control works perfectly every times :)

Any other comments/feedbacks/improvements are welcome! Thanks for reading.

Site Suggestions for Techies

Here I will give few site suggestions for those who have interest in technology and computers. These are my personal suggestions as of now. The list may change/evolve with time :)

So I will give 2 tech news sites, 2 tech message feed sites, 2 tech forums, 2 tech fun stuff sites and 2 tech political sites.

1. Ars Technica

The site has a title that reminds us the famous Greek phrase "Ars longa, vita brevis" meaning, "Art is long, life is short". The site gives various RSS feeds covering various topics. The site has a good look and it is easy to get what you want.

URL: http://arstechnica.com/

2. Tech Crunch

This is one of the sites that fuels my tech quest on daily basis. Their way of covering things often resemble conventional media. But still, they live up to the name. New time-line like interface is cool.

URL: http://techcrunch.com/

3. Slashdot

This is one of the best tech blog feed site. The main attraction of the site is not the content but the comments by the user community. They are very informative with a touch of wit that is typical to nerds. The site's recent takeover by Dice Holdings and major change in interface (in beta mode) is receiving lot of negative criticism. Some people are moving to Soylent News, which is much like classic Slashdot. But still, Slashdot worth mention.

URL: http://slashdot.org/
For those who like classic version: http://soylentnews.org/

4. Hacker News

This is run by a geek from India, Mohit Kumar. The site reports news that others try to silence. The site's feed UI is very simple and easy to use. You can subscribe to its feed to get updates right on your browser too...

URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/

5. Stack Exchange

The largest democratic QA forum. It has lot of "sub-sites" which many of us assume separate sites. For example, Ask Ubuntu, Super User, Stack Overflow etc are from Stack Exchange family. So this is much like one point access for all your tech forums.

URL: http://stackexchange.com/

6. Linux Questions

This site specializes in addressing your questions about Linux. This site has a very active community that will help you readily with their technical expertise. They also send daily and weekly digests to your mail, so that you can get an outlook on what is going on.

URL: http://www.linuxquestions.org/

7. XKCD

The ultimate fun for all techies. If you show some of these cartoons to non-technical people, they will find them uninteresting at best and meaningless at worst. But for us, this site gives a relaxing fun filled pastime.

URL: http://xkcd.com/

8. The Joy of Tech

This is for those who don't like the monochromatic stick people of XKCD, The Joy of Tech provides colorful, life like cartoons but with good wit weaved together.

URL: http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/

9. Richard Stallman's Political Notes

This is a daily update feed of political articles compiled by The Father of Free Software Movement, Dr. Richard Stallman himself. Though the site have frequent links about American politics, those links are equally valid for anyone living under globalized/privatized market. The site lacks any fancy interface. But the stuff matters a lot more.

URL: http://stallman.org/archives/polnotes.html

10. Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

This site covers political activism and technological battles happening around the world. They are non-profit organization that fights legal battles against corporate monopolies and bending of law by the rich.

URL: https://www.eff.org/